A small truth

Spent more than two hours on the rail trail yesterday going in the other direction. Meeting people on it has become annoying. Untethered dogs too. On my way out, I met an older man (someone my judging self registered as an old man) who asked me if I'd seen a basset hound in my travels. I told him I had not. A little while later, I encountered two women on the trail. We passed each other along the shore of a lake a cold wind was slicing across. The one who said hello my judging self registered as an older (than me) woman. When I run into people out there, it interrupts whatever is going on in my head. I feel an obligation to greet the person/people in such a way as to demonstrate that I am not a threat. Most often this is done with a wave or a wave and a hello. If it's a woman or women - I wave, say hello, and look down at my feet. I continued up the trail for another half hour or so and then turned around. On the return trip, I passed the two women who were now sitting on a bench near the shore of the lake with it's cold-edged wind. The older-than-me one asked if I'd found her yet. She was referring to the basset hound. She had mistaken me for the old man. Nope, I said and just kept going, the internal image I'd had of myself shaken like an Etch A Sketch.